The Campaign

Like most Australians, we love our food. Adore is a more accurate word. What DoSomething! is not so keen on is what’s happening to our food system.

Today’s food system is a recipe for environmental disaster. Food is often grown, refrigerated and transported hundreds of kilometres into centralised warehouses. From there, it’s trucked to supermarkets that are spread out into distant communities. The pre-packaged convenience food we buy contains ingredients that can criss-cross a continent. Even out of season food is flown around the world to ensure that nature doesn’t cramp our ability to eat what we want, when we want it.

The explosion in resource use that has come from the growing, processing, packaging and transportation of modern food is frightening.

We’re also eating meals that are more processed, higher in meat content, lower in fruit, vegetables and whole grains and generally more sugary than we know to be good for us.

Not only is this approach having a massive impact on our health, it’s taking a huge toll on the earth we live on. From an environmental standpoint, we’re eating ourselves out of house and home. If we don’t mend our ways, we’ll be eating ourselves out of an environment that can sustainably support future generations.

‘FoodWise’ is DoSomething’s national campaign to reduce the environmental impact of Australia’s food consumption. We want Australians to become more educated and informed about the food that they eat. In short we want Australians to become FoodWise.

But to do that, we need to address the disconnect that we have between the food that we buy and its impact on the environment. The majority of Australians have no idea about the energy and resources it takes to get food all the way from the paddock to the plate. That’s something that this website intends to change.

DoSomething’s FoodWise website gives you practical advice and information on what you can do to solve the problem. The solutions begin with buying seasonal food and sustainably harvested fish. Where possible – and within reason – we want people to buy locally grown produce or grow their own food. It can be as simple as eating less meat. Reducing your kitchen waste, composting and supporting food charities are just three ways to make sure that less food ends up in landfill. Being on top of animal welfare issues and where possible choosing organic are other approaches that we’ll cover in our push to get people eating more sustainably.

With the FoodWise website, our aim is to create a one-stop food sustainability website where people and organisations can share information. While the average food shopping expedition can fast resemble a mine field, we’re about building public understanding of the power of consumers and what we can do to build a better food future.

By bringing together a community of people who love food, we want to create a more sustainable approach to the way that we grow, distribute, consume and dispose of that food.

In other words, FoodWise is a how-to guide to cooking up real change.

We’d love for you to join our community. If you have content that you think would work on the FoodWise website, please email FoodWise@dosomething.net.au.

On behalf of the DoSomething! team, we’re glad that you’re here. Together, we can eat our way to a better future!